Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Pueblo ChieftainBy TRACY HARMON | tharmon@chieftain.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:00 am
CANON CITY — State officials shared the good
news and bad news Tuesday as they talked about why they've decided to
close the state's newest prison in February.
The good news: Crime is decreasing, inmate numbers are decreasing and
the number of inmates who get out and then come back for parole
violations is decreasing.
The bad news: The $162 million prison, dubbed Colorado State
Penitentiary II, won't even be paid for until 2021 and it can't replace
older prisons because it doesn't have the basic necessities like program
and recreational space.
Luckily, jobs won't be lost. The DOC
already has 60 vacancies in the remaining Canon City area prisons so by
February, there will be enough jobs to transfer the 213 employees to new
positions.
Nick Montanez was among about 32 DOC employees to
attend a town hall meeting Tuesday evening at the Corrections Training
Academy in Canon City. He accused corrections executives of using "smoke
and mirrors and sleight of hand — where is the cost savings coming in?"
"We
are trying to do this in a way that is responsible with the economic
health of Fremont County in mind. Instead of new hires, we will hold
vacancies open until we move staff out of CSPII," said Colorado
Department of Corrections Executive Director Tom Clements.
"The
shrinking offender population has really created an opportunity to close
the prison," Clements said. "There have been significant declines
beginning in 2009."
Just in the last eight months, the inmate
population has dropped by 1,048 prisoners and CSPII, or Centennial South
as it has been referred to, houses just 316 inmates. The trend is
expected to continue and there will be an estimated 905 fewer male
inmates in the next 16 months, Clements explained.
A declining crime rate, coupled with fewer paroled inmates returning to prison is credited for the declining prison population.
"This
is great news for all of us. In addition, there has been a decrease in
prison commitments from the court system," Clements said.
Another plus is that inmates are getting out and staying out.
"We
are doing a much better job of working with inmates when we release
them," said Roxane White, chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
"Unfortunately we have to close a prison."
Clements said he is
confident the DOC can relocate the highest-security inmates. He said the
state will still have 1,284 administrative segregation beds and 1,094
ad seg inmates.
"A big part of our mission is to prepare them to
be productive members of society. A total of 97 percent will get
released," Clements said.